2012 in Twitter’s terms

Twitter has had a tumultuous year, largely thanks by its strategy to restrict third-party developers. Still, there have been numerous positive moments. Now that 2012 is quickly coming to an end, Twitter is celebrating this year with a collage of the top culturally defining moments that were captured by its network.

The Twitter trip down memory lane is sectioned off into five themed categories, as described by Twitter:

Golden Tweets: The top two Tweets that generated the most Retweets for the year, plus honorable mentions for a few others that caught attention around the world.

The pulse of the planet: Some of the biggest conversations of the year that generated large numbers of Tweets and Retweets.

Only on Twitter: Moments of serendipity and just plain awesomeness (if there is such a thing) are what we call #onlyontwitter. We list examples of Tweets that came to life organically on Twitter, and can be appreciated in an instant.

Top trends: Lists of the significant Trends of the year in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. These phrases reveal what captured our attention based on sudden spike of interest, rather than what was consistently popular.

New voices: From the Pope to Pelé, this year Twitter welcomed new voices from every corner of the world.

The final theme on the site is labeled “Your Year on Twitter,” which links to its partner Vizify’s app to enable users to personalize their year on Twitter.

You can also check out the top trending and most discussed trends from 2012, which in the “Tech” section includes apps like Instagram, Skype, Draw Something, and Pinterest, while companies and mobile devices including AT&T, iPhone, Kindle, iPad, Amazon, and Apple round out the list.

The chart topping milestone for Twitter, however, and its proudest moment was undoubtedly President Obama’s tweet during Election Night. “Four more years” became the most retweeted tweet in the history of Twitter from users in more than 200 countries throughout the world. Election Day itself, as Twitter tells us, garnered more than 31 million tweets with a peak of 327,452 tweets per minute.